Hrgovic stopped Briton to win the IBF heavyweight title.
Filip Hrgovic, the new IBF world heavyweight champion, has offered a candid insight into the experience he endured before beating Moses Itauma in a shock stoppage victory last month, revealing he absorbed so many heavy punches in the first eight rounds that he felt headaches for some days afterwards.
“I felt fucked up,” said the 34-year-old Croat.
Hrgovic also said there is a chance he might face Rico Verhoeven, the Dutch fighter who used to be the world kickboxing champion, on the undercard to the much-delayed bout between Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury that is expected to take place in Cardiff on 11 December.
Hrgovic believes Itauma is so skilful that, if he learns from his painful defeat, the 21-year-old British prodigy can become unbeatable: “He’s good. You have some fast guys but they’re small heavyweights. You can handle them with your power but this kid is fast and big.”
If he recovers from this loss, mentally, it will be hard for anyone to ever beat him again.
Itauma is a character and Hrgovic said that doubts remain about his mentality. A lot of people, after that kind of loss, never come back.
Since his shattering defeat, attention has focused on a comment Itauma made before the fight which said that he has never sparred for 12 successive rounds.
Hrgovic, however, compared his own preparation with the less hard-edged approach of Itauma.
An exhausted Itauma ran out of energy, after setting a pace, and he was overwhelmed in the ninth round.